Sky Mavis, the creator of the popular blockchain game Axie Infinity, has partnered with CyberKongz on its Ethereum-based non-fungible token (NFT) collection.

The partnership will launch the Genkai NFT mint on Mavis Marketplace, the migration of the Play & Kollect game to Sky Mavis‘ Ronin platform, and the development of a game featuring Genkai.

The Genkai mint is an anime-inspired art collection and the next edition of CyberKongz intellectual property. The mint will take place on July 27, 2023, at 9 a.m. Pacific time, with 4,000 Genkais made available on Ronin platform via the Mavis Market and 16,000 NFTs made available on Ethereum Mainnet.

As part of the homecoming celebration, Sky Mavis will reward each Mystic Axie holder with a Genkai NFT per Mystic Axie owned. All Ethereum Genkai holders will have the option to migrate to Ronin in the future. For Sky Mavis, this helps it become more than a PFP project and this will help the company add utility for NFTs.

This partnership builds on Sky Mavis’ ambition to making Ronin the industry standard for blockchain gaming. By collaborating with one of Web3’s big NFT projects, Sky Mavis aims to create a gaming ecosystem that shares a big user base, community-owned protocols, applications, and deep asset liquidity.

Sky Mavis is also expanding its strategy to create intellectual property that transcends gaming culture by amplifying CyberKongz’s latest expansion of IP through the Genkai mint.

“By partnering with Sky Mavis we are embarking on a unique opportunity to accelerate our already established gaming ecosystem, while also enabling an expansion of our holder base,” said CyberKongz founder and artist, Myoo, in a statement. “Genkai is the first non-pixel artwork I have created for CyberKongz and will represent our growth as a project to expand our IP into the Southeast Asian and Japanese markets. Additionally, CyberKongz will be working with Ronin to develop a game featuring Genkai. This ambitious venture will seek to alter the paradigm of web3 IP in a gamified manner.”

The Genkai mint will make use of CyberKongz’s ERC-721x smart contract, which enables seamless transactions for blockchain gaming protocols and allows for tighter security. ERC-721x allows users to “lock” their NFTs utilizing the token standard’s lock registry and prevents assets from being moved without authorization.

Locked NFTs can participate in “stakeless staking,” allowing them to accumulate rewards while being held using the lock registry.

CyberKongz is also migrating its first innovative utility project Play & Kollect, a fully on-chain experience to find, mint, and collect favorite NFTs, from Polygon to Ronin in order to access a core gaming community. Sky Mavis said this move is significant as Ronin is focused on gaming, and its negligible fees allow for millions of microtransactions without the elevated gas fees that accompany other blockchains.

The CyberKongz’ Genkai collection is inspired by manga and anime drawn from Japanese folklore, with the style supporting the project’s goal of expanding its IP into Southeast Asia and Japanese markets. The partnership with Sky Mavis provides a unique opportunity to accelerate the gaming ecosystem while enabling an expansion of the holder base. The game featuring Genkai will seek to alter the paradigm of web3 IP in a gamified manner, according to Myoo.

Axie Infinity has generated $1.3 billion in revenue to date.